§13.18.1non concedam ut Attico nostro, quem elatum laetitia vidi, iucundiores tuae suavissime ad eum et humanissime scriptae litterae fuerint quam mihi.
I will not admit that your letter, written to our Atticus most sweetly and politely, was more delightful to him, whom I saw elated with joy, than to me.
nam etsi utrique nostrum prope aeque gratae erant, tamen ego admirabar magis te, qui, si rogatus aut certe admonitus liberaliter Attico respondisses †(quod tamen dubium nobis quin ita futurum fuerit non erat), ultro ad eum scripsisse eique nec opinanti voluntatem tuam tantam per litteras detulisse.
For even if it was almost equally pleasing to both of us, yet I wondered more at you, who—although, if you had been asked or at least prompted, you would have responded generously to Atticus (and yet we had no doubt that this would have been the case)—voluntarily wrote to him and conveyed such great goodwill to him by letter when he was not expecting it.
de quo non modo rogare te ut eo studiosius mea quoque causa facias non debeo (nihil enim cumulatius fieri potest quam polliceris), sed ne gratias quidem agere, quod tu et ipsius causa et tua sponte feceris; §13.18.2illud tamen dicam, mihi id, quod fecisti, esse gratissimum.
Concerning this matter, I ought not only not to ask you to do it all the more zealously for my sake as well (for nothing can be done more fully than what you promise), but not even to return thanks, because you have done it both for his own sake and of your own accord; yet I will say this, that what you did is most gratifying to me.
tale enim tuum iudicium de homine eo, quem ego unice diligo, non potest mihi non summe esse iucundum; quod cum ita sit, esse gratum necesse est.
For such a judgment of yours concerning that man, whom I singularly love, cannot but be supremely pleasing to me; and since this is so, it must needs be welcome.
sed tamen, quoniam mihi pro coniunctione nostra vel peccare apud te in scribendo licet, utrumque eorum, quae negavi mihi facienda esse, faciam; nam et ad id, quod Attici causa te ostendisti esse facturum, tantum velim addas, quantum ex nostro amore accessionis fieri potest, et, quod modo verebar, tibi gratias agere, nunc plane ago teque ita existimare volo, quibuscumque officiis in Epiroticis reliquisque rebus Atticum obstrinxeris, iisdem me tibi obligatum fore.
Nevertheless, since because of our close connection I am allowed even to make a slip in writing to you, I will do both of those things which I said I ought not to do; for I would wish you to add to that which you showed you would do for Atticus' sake as much of an accession as can be made from our love, and, what I was just now shrinking from, to return you thanks, I now clearly do so, and I want you to think that by whatever favors you bind Atticus in his Epirotiq affairs and other matters, by those same I shall be obliged to you.